Tag Archive for 'Criterion'
December 13th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming in March to the Criterion Collection: A Woman of Paris, Charlie Chaplin’s long-overlooked silent masterpiece; Godzilla vs. Biollante, a high point in the mythology of the King of the Monsters, directed by Kazuki Omori; Night Moves, Arthur Penn’s haunting 1970s neo-noir; and Choose Me, a seductive neon dream about human desire, directed by Alan Rudolph. PLUS: Michael Mann’s Thief, the American auteur’s […]
December 1st, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Like Godzilla, the other Criterion Collection film recently released on 4K UHD, Seven Samurai also turns 70 this year. It’s been treated to a full-on 4K restoration that was toured worldwide in theaters. Often regarded as the “Best Japanese Film of All Time” and one of the greatest and most influential films in cinema history, […]
November 29th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
At this point, it’s pretty clear that I’m happy to talk about anything Godzilla-related. I’ve written my share of posts on Why So Blu regarding the King of the Monsters. The original 1954 Gojira was previously released by the Criterion Collection on Blu-ray over a decade ago at this point, followed by a massive Showa Era collection release for […]
November 18th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming to the Criterion Collection in February: King Lear, Jean-Luc Godard’s radical anti-adaptation of Shakespeare; Crossing Delancey, a love letter to 1980s Manhattan directed by Joan Micklin Silver; Drugstore Cowboy, Gus Van Sant’s lyrical Pacific Northwest addiction drama; and Performance, a transgressive journey to the dark side of London bohemia, directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg. Plus: Cronos, Guillermo del Toro’s dark fantasy […]
October 15th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming in January from the Criterion Collection: The Mother and the Whore, the long-unavailable 1970s magnum opus from Jean Eustache; Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, a lacerating self-portrait by legendary comedian Richard Pryor; The Grifters, Stephen Frears’s pulpy, dark-hearted neo-noir; and Winchester ’73, Anthony Mann’s landmark, genre-redefining western. Plus: Yojimbo/Sanjuro, two of the most iconic and influential samurai films, by Akira […]
September 16th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming in December: No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen’s riveting West Texas borderlands noir, and Eastern Condors, Sammo Hung’s bazooka blast of Hong Kong action spectacle. Plus, now on 4K UHD: Paris, Texas, a visually exquisite study of a drifter in the American Southwest, directed by Wim Wenders, and Federico Fellini’s 8½, one of the greatest films about film ever […]
July 15th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming in October from The Criterion Collection: I Walked with a Zombie / The Seventh Victim, a pair of moody horror milestones from visionary producer Val Lewton; Demon Pond, a folk-horror fantasia from Japanese New Wave renegade Masahiro Shinoda; and Gummo, a transgressive portrait of angelic and devilish souls in America’s rural underbelly from Harmony Korine. Plus: Pandora’s Box, a sensationally modern […]
July 13th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
It was an absolute pleasure to review The Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray release of this film back in 2017, and now here we are again with the 4K UHD release. Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï is one of a couple of films from this timeframe that brought a modern sense of cool to practically all the movies about contract […]
June 17th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming in September to the Criterion Collection: Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, a trio of films from the New Queer Cinema renegade; All of Us Strangers, Andrew Haigh’s metaphysical exploration of queer love and loneliness; and Happiness, Todd Solondz’s disturbingly funny portrait of middle-class suburbia. Plus: The Long Good Friday, John Mackenzie’s landmark of British crime cinema, and Repo Man, Alex Cox’s quintessential […]
May 15th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming in August: Brief Encounters / The Long Farewell: Two Films by Kira Muratova, two long-suppressed features by the fearless Ukrainian iconoclast; Not a Pretty Picture, a metacinematic experiment in recreating trauma from Martha Coolidge; Real Life, a satirical mockumentary about attempting to document the life of an ordinary American family, from Albert Brooks; and Mother, a comic portrait of a struggling novelist […]
April 30th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Originally released in America as its translated title, “Hate,” director Mathieu Kassovitz’s brilliant 1995 social thriller, La Haine, has endured for a few reasons. It’s not because of the alarming tone the title implies but because the film is a well-produced commentary on urban riots in France, as well as an engaging character piece, expertly […]
April 15th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming to The Criterion Collection in July: Black God, White Devil, Glauber Rocha’s blistering existential western from Brazil; Perfect Days, a serene ode to everyday life in Tokyo directed by Wim Wenders; Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Sam Peckinpah’s blood- and dust-caked elegy for the American West; Farewell My Concubine, a breathtakingly intimate saga in twentieth-century China, directed by Chen Kaige; […]
April 7th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Originally known as The Devil and Daniel Webster, based on the original 1936 short story by Stephen Vincent Benét, All That Money Can Buy was previously released by the Criterion Collection in 2003 on DVD. This Blu-ray release, featuring a brand-new 4K restoration, looks to bring new life to the Oscar-winning 1941 supernatural feature. Its […]
March 15th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming in June from The Criterion Collection: Bound, Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s hyperstylish, sapphic heist thriller; Querelle, a delirious depiction of gay desire from Rainer Werner Fassbinder; Victims of Sin, a vibrant Mexican musical-melodrama-noir from Emilio Fernández; and The Underground Railroad, Barry Jenkins’s monumental reimagining of American history through the eyes of an enslaved woman. Plus: Blue Velvet, David Lynch’s unforgettable vision of innocence […]
February 27th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
At a time in the 80s/90s, when Hong Kong cinema was making names out of Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, Donnie Yen, and many others, it’s not as though women were left out of the conversation. Already stars in their own right, the combined talents of Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui, and Michelle Yeoh […]
February 15th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming this May: Three Revolutionary Films by Ousmane Sembène, three powerful 1970s works by the trailblazing Senegalese auteur; Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet’s masterful examination of the line between truth and fiction; and Girlfight, Karyn Kusama’s singular tale of a young woman’s path to self-realization. Plus: a Blu-ray upgrade of A Story of Floating Weeds / Floating Weeds: Two […]
January 17th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
One of the best films of 90s British cinema, let alone the 90s in general, Danny Boyle’s sophomore effort, Trainspotting, is a well-respected cult classic for good reason. Along with helping break out Ewan McGregor (among others), this film has a terrific sense of style and kinetic energy that would define much of Boyle’s career […]
January 16th, 2024 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming this April: Werckmeister Harmonies, a hypnotic parable of societal collapse from auteur Béla Tarr and codirector-editor Ágnes Hranitzky; I Am Cuba, Mikhail Kalatozov’s dazzling work of radical political cinema; and Dogfight, a bittersweet tale of love and war in the 1960s, directed by Nancy Savoca. Plus: La Haine, Mathieu Kassovitz’s gritty landmark of 1990s French cinema, and Picnic at Hanging Rock, Peter Weir’s disquieting […]
